The Arkansaw traveler., 1887-10-08
Written for The ArkdnSdU TTdueier.
 THE GOLDEN RULE.
BY ED. K. PRITCHARD.

There is saloon out on the West Side, the proprietor of which has named it "The Golden Rule." And the fact that the incident l am about to relate occurred in front of it's DOT tals is no more strange than that its owner should see the fitness of the name which he gave to his gin mill. Across it's glittering and always highly polished, plate-glass windows, in letters of spotless white, were the words which would indicate that all who entered there would be dealt by on principle the fairest and squarest ever laid down for the guidance of human conduct.
 It was early morning when seedy, tattered and rum- soaked bum, who had doubtless passed the night in some stairway, came shutiling along, evidently hunting for a morning dram. AS he instinctively paused be- fore the entrance to the Golden Rule, and while he was gazing wistfully at it's interior, and perhaps cogitating upon the chances of being able to beg drink from the bartender, his eyes fell upon the big white letters in the windows. Slowly he spelled out the words, and then removing his battered hat he began to scratch his head, gaz- ing meanwhile intently at the letters and apparently lost in the depths of his profound meditations.
 Finally he calculated "Well, Pm blowed, if I don't remember suthin' 'bout them yer words, but danged if I kin jes now get 'em somehow straight ened out in my head" He replaced his hat where it belonged and thrust ing his hands deep into his pantaloon- pockets, he stood as if spell -boud by the words which had, evidently by the merest accident, caught his atten- tion, but had strangely enough aroused something in his memory which had lain dormant perhaps from the days of his childhood. At any rate, in trying to get at the meaning of the words before him he had at- tempted what was for him a very difficult task. Slowly but deter minedly he wrestled with the prob- lem, till at length light broke over his face and he almost shouted as he exclaimed: By gum, Tve got it p Then talking to himself, he continued : II remembers now 'at when wos young un I went wunse to place whur there was bloke whut talked bout the golden rule. He said it wuz ter allus treat tother fellar jes like you'd like ter be fredted."
 Here he stopped and again medi- tated. An instant later he had started for the door saving to himself: "This fellar what keeps this saloon must be one O them Sunday school blokes his- self"
 But, alas for human weakness alas for human cussedness-for despite the poor fellows painful and laborious calculations his conclusions were wrong, radically wrong. It was not twenty seconds after he had crossed the threshold of the Golden Rule be- fore he came out again, and that very hurriedly. In fact, his exit from the door to the curb of the sidewalk was one mighty leap, by which he just es- capped being hit with huge rubber spittoon, which the irate Samaritan on the inside had hurled after him. The unfortunate searcher for morn- , ing eye-opener continued or his way, but as he went off I caught something which, put into ordinarily good Eng fish, was as follows: "That saloon keeper, like a great many other people, has a sign on the outside of his place not in harmony with or properly in- terpreting the character of the busi- ness carried on inside"